Jesus Connected With, And Responded To, The Troubled Spirits Of Those Who Mourned

What Did Jesus Do?

When Jesus saw her weeping, and the Jews with her also weeping,
he was deeply moved in his spirit and greatly troubled.
John 11.33

There is no one settled opinion as to exactly how Jesus reacted to the unsettling agitation of Mary and the Jews who had followed after, presumably to weep before the tomb which held the body of Lazarus (John 11.29-33). Most acknowledge that the Greek of the New Testament indicates that empathic feelings of grief and sorrow contended with indignant anger, troubling the very spirit of the Lord. Was the anger directed at death for its effrontery in daring to take the life of one of the saints of the LORD? Or was the indignation a response to the hypocritical wailing of the semi-professional mourners who had come out from Jerusalem to Bethany to the house of Lazarus and his sisters? Could it have perhaps even been that the Lord felt exasperation at the failure of Martha and Mary to fully understand that in Jesus, himself the resurrection and the life, those who died would yet live, and that those who lived and believed in him would never die? I believe it is quite likely that the answer is “all of the above,” as the fully divine and fully human Jesus experienced a greater range of emotion and feeling than we can imagine. In any case, it is quite clear that Jesus connected with, and responded to, the troubled spirits of those who mourned that day.

The fully human nature of Jesus felt and shared the grief and sense of loss of the sisters of Lazarus, for the Lord had deeply loved him as a friend (John 11.3). Very soon, the fully human nature of Jesus would be engulfed in its own suffering and sorrow upon the cross for the sins of all those he deeply loved. The fully divine nature of Jesus felt and shared the LORD's anger and indignation over the death of one of his saints, for the Father and the Son were one, especially in their love for humanity. Very soon, the fully divine nature of Jesus would confront and overcome death, and rise up from the grave to the glory of the Father.

The onlookers who recognized how much Jesus loved Lazarus were quite right (John 11.36). And they were quite correct in surmising that Jesus could have kept Lazarus from dying (John 11.37). But the people, including Christ's disciples, did not yet understand that he had come, and was about to act, not merely to restore Lazarus to his sisters, but that many of them would come to believe in him as the Son of God come into the world, so that, in believing, they themselves should never die (John 11.25-26). That understanding would remain on the far side of the cross, and for the coming of the Holy Spirit to reveal the whole truth about the breadth and the depth of the love of the Father and the Son for us all.

S.D.G.

Jim
www.jimwilkenminitries.org
Marion, NC
PS 37.4